Run Golang as www-data - security

Question

When I run a Node HTTP server app I usually call a custom function
function runAsWWW()
{
try
{
process.setgid('www-data');
process.setuid('www-data');
} catch (err)
{
console.error('Cowardly refusal to keep the process alive as root.');
process.exit(1);
}
}
from server.listen(8080,'localhost',null,runAsWWW);
so the server is actually running as the www-data user to offer a better modicum of security. Is there something similar I can do when I start up a Golang web server by issuing go run index.go?

Answer 1

No. You can't reliably setuid or setgid in go, because that doesn't work for multithreaded programs.
You need to start the program as the intended user, either directly, through a supervisor of some sort (e.g. supervisord, runit, monit), or through your init system.

Answer 2

Expanding on #JimB's answer:
Use a process supervisor to run your application as a specific user (and handle restarts/crashes, log re-direction, etc). setuid and setgid are universally bad ideas for multi-threaded applications.
Either use your OS' process manager (Upstart, systemd, sysvinit) or a standalone process manager (Supervisor, runit, monit, etc).
Here's an example for Supervisor:
[program:yourapp]
command=/home/yourappuser/bin/yourapp # the location of your app
autostart=true
autorestart=true
startretries=10
user=yourappuser # the user your app should run as (i.e. *not* root!)
directory=/srv/www/yourapp.com/ # where your application runs from
environment=APP_SETTINGS="/srv/www/yourapp.com/prod.toml" # environmental variables
redirect_stderr=true
stdout_logfile=/var/log/supervisor/yourapp.log # the name of the log file.
stdout_logfile_maxbytes=50MB
stdout_logfile_backups=10
Further: if you're not reverse proxying and your Go application needs to bind to a port < 1024 (e.g. port 80 or 443) then use setcap - for example: setcap cap_net_bind_service=+ep /home/yourappuser/bin/yourapp
PS: I wrote a little article on how to run Go applications with Supervisor (starting from "I don't have Supervisor installed").

Answer 3

You can check if the program is running under a certain user with os/user package:
curr, err := user.Current()
// Check err.
www, err := user.Lookup("www-data")
// Check err.
if *curr != *www {
panic("Go away!")
}
This is not exactly what you want, but it does prevent it from running under any other user. You can run it as www-data by running it with su:
su www-data -c "myserver"

Answer 4

A way to achieve this safely would be to fork yourself.
This is a raw untested example on how you could achieve safe setuid:
1) Make sure you are root
2) Listen on the wanted port (as root)
3) Fork as www-data user.
4) Accept and serve requests.
http://play.golang.org/p/sT25P0KxXK
package main
import (
"flag"
"fmt"
"log"
"net"
"net/http"
"os"
"os/exec"
"os/user"
"strconv"
"syscall"
)
var listenFD = flag.Int("l", 0, "listen pid")
func handler(w http.ResponseWriter, req *http.Request) {
u, err := user.Current()
if err != nil {
log.Println(err)
return
}
fmt.Fprintf(w, "%s\n", u.Name)
}
func lookupUser(username string) (uid, gid int, err error) {
u, err := user.Lookup(username)
if err != nil {
return -1, -1, err
}
uid, err = strconv.Atoi(u.Uid)
if err != nil {
return -1, -1, err
}
gid, err = strconv.Atoi(u.Gid)
if err != nil {
return -1, -1, err
}
return uid, gid, nil
}
// FDListener .
type FDListener struct {
file *os.File
}
// Accept .
func (ln *FDListener) Accept() (net.Conn, error) {
fd, _, err := syscall.Accept(int(*listenFD))
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
conn, err := net.FileConn(os.NewFile(uintptr(fd), ""))
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
return conn.(*net.TCPConn), nil
}
// Close .
func (ln *FDListener) Close() error {
return ln.file.Close()
}
// Addr .
func (ln *FDListener) Addr() net.Addr {
return nil
}
func start() error {
u, err := user.Current()
if err != nil {
return err
}
if u.Uid != "0" && *listenFD == 0 {
// we are not root and we have no listen fd. Error.
return fmt.Errorf("need to run as root: %s", u.Uid)
} else if u.Uid == "0" && *listenFD == 0 {
// we are root and we have no listen fd. Do the listen.
l, err := net.Listen("tcp", "0.0.0.0:80")
if err != nil {
return fmt.Errorf("Listen error: %s", err)
}
f, err := l.(*net.TCPListener).File()
if err != nil {
return err
}
uid, gid, err := lookupUser("guillaume")
if err != nil {
return err
}
// First extra file: fd == 3
cmd := exec.Command(os.Args[0], "-l", fmt.Sprint(3))
cmd.Stdin = os.Stdin
cmd.Stdout = os.Stdout
cmd.Stderr = os.Stderr
cmd.ExtraFiles = append(cmd.ExtraFiles, f)
cmd.SysProcAttr = &syscall.SysProcAttr{
Credential: &syscall.Credential{
Uid: uint32(uid),
Gid: uint32(gid),
},
}
if err := cmd.Run(); err != nil {
return fmt.Errorf("cmd.Run error: %s", err)
}
return nil
} else if u.Uid != "0" && *listenFD != 0 {
// We are not root and we have a listen fd. Do the accept.
ln := &FDListener{file: os.NewFile(uintptr(*listenFD), "net")}
if err := http.Serve(ln, http.HandlerFunc(handler)); err != nil {
return err
}
}
return fmt.Errorf("setuid fail: %s, %d", u.Uid, *listenFD)
}
func main() {
flag.Parse()
if err := start(); err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
}